Christianity and sexual orientation

Christian denominations have a variety of beliefs about sexual orientation, including beliefs about same-sex sexual practices and asexuality. Denominations differ in the way they treat lesbian, bisexual, and gay people; variously, such people may be barred from membership, accepted as laity, or ordained as clergy, depending on the denomination. As asexuality is relatively new to public discourse, few Christian denominations discuss it.[1][2] Asexuality may be considered the lack of a sexual orientation, or one of the four variations thereof, alongside heterosexuality, homosexuality, bisexuality, and pansexuality.

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Beliefs and mythology
Main articles: Christianity and homosexuality and Christianity and transgender people
Further information: History of Christianity and homosexuality

The history of Christianity and homosexuality has been much debated.[3] The Hebrew Bible and its traditional interpretations in Judaism and Christianity have historically affirmed and endorsed a patriarchal and heteronormative approach towards human sexuality,[4][5] favouring exclusively penetrative vaginal intercourse between men and women within the boundaries of marriage over all other forms of human sexual activity,[4][5] including autoeroticism, masturbation, oral sex, non-penetrative and non-heterosexual sexual intercourse (all of which have been labeled as "sodomy" at various times),[6] believing and teaching that such behaviors are forbidden because they're considered sinful,[4][5] and further compared to or derived from the behavior of the alleged residents of Sodom and Gomorrah.[4][7][8][9][10] However, the status of LGBT people in early Christianity is debated.[3][11][12][13][14] Throughout the majority of Christian history, most Christian theologians and denominations have considered homosexual behavior as immoral or sinful.[7][15]

Biblical
Main article: The Bible and homosexuality
The destruction of Sodom as illustrated by Sebastian Münster (1564)

Following the lead of Yale scholar John Boswell, it has been argued that a number of early Christians (such as Saints Sergius and Bacchus) entered into homosexual relationships,[16] and that certain Biblical figures had homosexual relationships, despite Biblical injunctions against sexual relationships between members of the same sex. Examples cited are Ruth and her mother-in-law Naomi, Daniel and the court official Ashpenaz, and, most famously, David and King Saul's son Jonathan.[17]

The story of David and Jonathan has been described as "biblical Judeo-Christianity's most influential justification of homoerotic love".[18] The relationship between David and Jonathan is mainly covered in the Old Testament First Book of Samuel, as part of the story of David's ascent to power. The mainstream view found in modern biblical exegesis argues that the relationship between the two is merely a close platonic friendship.[19][20] However, a few have interpreted the love between David and Jonathan as romantic or sexual.[21][22][23][24] Although David was married (to many women), he articulates a distinction between his relationship with Jonathan and the bonds he shares with women.

Another biblical hero, Noah, best known for his building an ark to save animals and worthy people from a divinely caused flood, later became a wine-maker. One day he drank too much wine, and fell asleep naked in his tent. When his son Ham entered the tent, he saw his father naked, and his son, Canaan was cursed with banishment and possibly slavery. In Jewish tradition, it is also suggested that Ham had anal sex with Noah or castrated him.[25]

Saints
Saint Sebastian, considered by some to be the world's first LGBT icon

While highly controversial, attempts have been made to hold up certain Christian saints as positive examples of homosexuality in Church history:

  • Saints Sergius and Bacchus: Sergius and Bacchus's close relationship has led some modern commentators to believe they were lovers. The most popular evidence for this view is that the oldest text of their martyrology, in the Greek language, describes them as "erastai", or lovers.[26] Historian John Boswell considered their relationship to be an example of an early Christian same-sex union, reflecting his contested view of tolerant early Christians attitudes toward homosexuality.[26] The official stance of the Eastern Orthodox Church is that the ancient Eastern tradition of adelphopoiia, which was done to form a "brotherhood" in the name of God, and is traditionally associated with these two saints, had no sexual implications.
  • Saints Cosmas and Damian:[27] A difficulty with this assertion is that most hagiographies list these saints as natural brothers or twins.[28][29]
  • Saint Sebastian has been called the world's first gay icon.[30] The combination of his strong, shirtless physique, the symbolism of the arrows penetrating his body, and the look on his face of rapturous pain have intrigued artists for centuries, and began the first explicitly gay cult in the 19th century.[30] Richard A. Kaye wrote, "contemporary gay men have seen in Sebastian at once a stunning advertisement for homosexual desire (indeed, a homoerotic ideal), and a prototypical portrait of tortured closet case."[31][32]

Eunuchs

The extent and even the existence of religious castration among Christians, with members of the early church castrating themselves for religious purposes,[33] is subject to debate.[34] The early theologian Origen found scriptural justification for the practice in Matthew 19:12,.[35] where Jesus says, "For there are eunuchs who have been so from birth, and there are eunuchs who have been made eunuchs by others, and there are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. Let anyone accept this who can." (NRSV)

In describing Jesus as a spado and Paul of Tarsus as a castratus in his book De Monogamia, Tertullian, a 2nd-century Church Father, used Latin words that denoted eunuchs[36] to refer to virginity and continence.[37][38]

The significance of the selection of the Ethiopian eunuch as being the first gentile convert has been discussed as representative of inclusion of a sexual minority in the context of the time.[39]

Specific sexual orientations

Homosexuality
Main article: Christianity and homosexuality

Christianity has traditionally regarded male homosexual behavior to be an immoral practice, or sinful, and most major Christian movements continue to hold this view.[40][41]

Some Christian movements have only denominations that have a conservative view, like the Catholic Church,[42] the Eastern Orthodox churches, the Church of Jesus Christ Latter-Day Saints, and the Seventh-day Adventist churches, although some of these movements have networks of LGBT people.[43][44]

Some Christian movements have denominations that have liberal or conservative views, like the Anglican churches, Lutheran churches, Presbyterian churches, Methodist churches, Quaker churches, Mennonite churches, Baptist churches, and Pentecostal churches.[45][46][47]

The Metropolitan Community Church has been founded specifically to serve the Christian LGBT community. Its founder, Troy Perry, was the first minister to conduct a same-sex marriage in public, as well as filing the first lawsuit for legal recognition of same-sex marriages in the United States.[48]

Male homosexuality

Studies in the US show more LGBT individuals identify as Protestant than Catholic.[49][50][51]

Lesbianism

Lesbians face different social and cultural preconceptions than gay men. Their experience in Christianity is sometimes dissimilar to that of gay men, although lesbianism has also traditionally been considered a sin within the religion.[52]

In 1982, lesbian members of DignityUSA founded the Conference for Catholic Lesbians out of concern that DignityUSA was too oriented toward males.[53]

In 1986 the Evangelical and Ecumenical Women's Caucus (EEWC), then known as the Evangelical Women's Caucus International, passed a resolution stating: "Whereas homosexual people are children of God, and because of the biblical mandate of Jesus Christ that we are all created equal in God's sight, and in recognition of the presence of the lesbian minority in EWCI, EWCI takes a firm stand in favor of civil rights protection for homosexual persons."[54]

A survey of self-identified lesbian women found a "dissonance" between their religious and sexual identities. This dissonance correlated with being an evangelical Christian before coming out.[52]

Bisexuality

Very few churches have released statements about bisexuality, and research into the bisexual Christian community has been affected by the fact that bisexual Christians are often considered the same as lesbian and gay Christians.[55] However, in 1972, a Quaker group, the Committee of Friends on Bisexuality, issued the "Ithaca Statement on Bisexuality" supporting bisexuals.[56] The Statement, which may have been "the first public declaration of the bisexual movement" and "was certainly the first statement on bisexuality issued by an American religious assembly," appeared in the Quaker Friends Journal and The Advocate in 1972.[57][58][59] Today Quakers have varying opinions on LGBT people and rights, with some Quaker groups more accepting than others.[60]

Asexuality

Asexuality may be considered the lack of a sexual orientation, or one of the four variations thereof, alongside heterosexuality, homosexuality, and bisexuality.[61][62][63]

As asexuality is relatively new to public discourse, few Christian denominations discuss it and the Bible does not clearly state a view on it.[1][2] However, some Christian publications have recently made statements on the subject. In the Christian magazine Vision, David Nantais, S.J. and Scott Opperman, S.J. wrote in 2002, "Question: What do you call a person who is asexual? Answer: Not a person. Asexual people do not exist. Sexuality is a gift from God and thus a fundamental part of our human identity. Those who repress their sexuality are not living as God created them to be: fully alive and well. As such, they're most likely unhappy people with which to live."[2][64] However, in contrast, Lisa Petriello wrote the article "Why We Christians Should Accept Asexuals", which was published in 2020 in Katy Christian Magazine.[65] In this article, she points out that there is nothing in the Bible condemning asexuality, and posits that both Jesus and Saint Paul were asexual. The Reformed Christian website GotQuestions.org also accepts asexuals, and states that a lack of sexual desire “most definitely is not wrong.”[66]

See also

References
Specific
  1. Smith, SE (21 August 2012). "Asexuality always existed, you just didn't notice it". The Guardian. Retrieved March 11, 2013.
  2. "Ace Week". Ace Week.
  3. Frontain, Raymond-Jean (2003). "Introduction". In Frontain, Raymond-Jean (ed.). Reclaiming the Sacred: The Bible in Gay and Lesbian Culture (2nd ed.). New York and London: Harrington Park Press. pp. 1–24. ISBN 9781560233558. LCCN 2002068889.
  4. Mbuwayesango, Dora R. (2016) [2015]. "Part III: The Bible and Bodies – Sex and Sexuality in Biblical Narrative". In Fewell, Danna N. (ed.). The Oxford Handbook of Biblical Narrative. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 456–465. doi:10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199967728.013.39. ISBN 9780199967728. LCCN 2015033360. S2CID 146505567.
  5. Leeming, David A. (June 2003). Carey, Lindsay B. (ed.). "Religion and Sexuality: The Perversion of a Natural Marriage". Journal of Religion and Health. Springer Verlag. 42 (2): 101–109. doi:10.1023/A:1023621612061. ISSN 1573-6571. JSTOR 27511667. S2CID 38974409.
  6. Sauer, Michelle M. (2015). "The Unexpected Actuality: "Deviance" and Transgression". Gender in Medieval Culture. London: Bloomsbury Academic. pp. 74–78. doi:10.5040/9781474210683.ch-003. ISBN 978-1-4411-2160-8.
  7. Gnuse, Robert K. (May 2015). "Seven Gay Texts: Biblical Passages Used to Condemn Homosexuality". Biblical Theology Bulletin. SAGE Publications on behalf of Biblical Theology Bulletin Inc. 45 (2): 68–87. doi:10.1177/0146107915577097. ISSN 1945-7596. S2CID 170127256.
  8. Gilbert, Kathleen (September 29, 2008). "Bishop Soto tells NACDLGM: 'Homosexuality is Sinful'". Catholic Online. Archived from the original on 30 September 2008.
  9. Robinson, Gene; Krehely, Jeff; Steenland, Sally (December 8, 2010). "What are Religious Texts Really Saying about Gay and Transgender Rights?". Center for American Progress. Retrieved March 30, 2021.
  10. Modisane, Cameron (November 15, 2014). "The Story of Sodom and Gomorrah was NOT About Homosexuality". News24. Retrieved March 30, 2021.
  11. Doerfler, Maria E. (2016) [2014]. "Coming Apart at the Seams: Cross-dressing, Masculinity, and the Social Body in Late Antiquity". In Upson-Saia, Kristi; Daniel-Hughes, Carly; Batten, Alicia J. (eds.). Dressing Judeans and Christians in Antiquity (1st ed.). London and New York: Routledge. pp. 37–51. doi:10.4324/9781315578125-9. ISBN 9780367879334. LCCN 2014000554. OCLC 921583924. S2CID 165559811.
  12. Hunter, David G. (2015). "Celibacy Was "Queer": Rethinking Early Christianity". In Talvacchia, Kathleen T.; Pettinger, Michael F.; Larrimore, Mark (eds.). Queer Christianities: Lived Religion in Transgressive Forms. New York and London: NYU Press. pp. 13–24. ISBN 9781479851812. JSTOR j.ctt13x0q0q.6. LCCN 2014025201. S2CID 152944605.
  13. Frost, Natasha (2018-03-02). "A Modern Controversy Over Ancient Homosexuality". Atlas Obscura. Retrieved 2021-04-24.
  14. McClain, Lisa. "A thousand years ago, the Catholic Church paid little attention to homosexuality". The Conversation. Retrieved 2021-04-24.
  15. Koenig, Harold G.; Dykman, Jackson (2012). Religion and Spirituality in Psychiatry. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 43. ISBN 9780521889520. the overwhelming majority of Christian churches have maintained their positions that homosexual behavior is sinful
  16. Boswell, John (1996). The Marriage of Likeness: Same-Sex Unions in Pre-Modern Europe. Fontana. ISBN 9780006863267. Retrieved April 20, 2021.
  17. "Same-Sex Relationships in the Bible: Conservative and Liberal Viewpoints". www.religioustolerance.org.
  18. Haggerty, p.380
  19. DeYoung, p. 290
  20. Martti Nissinen, Kirsi Stjerna, Homoeroticism in the Biblical World, p. 56
  21. Boswell, John. Same-sex Unions in Premodern Europe. New York: Vintage, 1994. (pp. 135-137)
  22. Halperin, David M. One Hundred Years of Homosexuality. New York: Routledge, 1990. (p. 83)
  23. When Heroes Love:. The Ambiguity of Eros in the Stories of Gilgamesh and David (New York & Chichester, Columbia University Press, 2005), pp. 165-231
  24. Homosexuality and Liminality in the Gilgamesh and Samuel (Amsterdam, Hakkert, 2007), pp. 28-63
  25. Conner & Sparks p. 250, "Noah"
  26. Boswell, p. 154
  27. Jordan, Mark D. (2000). The silence of Sodom: homosexuality in modern Catholicism. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. ISBN 978-0-226-41041-8. on the nature of "brotherly love", p.174
  28. Holy Wonderworking Unmercenary Physicians Cosmas and Damian at Rome, synaxarion, Orthodox Church in America
  29. troparia, All; saints, kontakia · All lives of. "Lives of the Saints". www.oca.org.
  30. "Subjects of the Visual Arts: St. Sebastian". glbtq.com. 2002. Archived from the original on 2007-09-01. Retrieved 2007-08-01.
  31. Kaye, Richard A. (1996). "Losing His Religion: Saint Sebastian as Contemporary Gay Martyr". Outlooks: Lesbian and Gay Sexualities and Visual Cultures. Peter Horne and Reina Lewis, Eds. Vol. 86. p. 105. doi:10.4324/9780203432433_chapter_five. ISBN 978-0-203-29128-3.
  32. "Arrows of desire: How did St Sebastian become an enduring, homo-erotic icon? - Features, Art". The Independent. 2008-02-10. Retrieved 2009-07-16.
  33. Caner, Daniel (1997). "The Practice and Prohibition of Self-Castration in Early Christianity". Vigiliae Christianae. 51 (4): 396–415. doi:10.1163/157007297X00291. JSTOR 1583869.
  34. Hester, David (2005). "Eunuchs and the Postgender Jesus: Matthew 19:12 and Transgressive Sexualities". Journal for the Study of the New Testament. 28 (1): 13–40. doi:10.1177/0142064X05057772. S2CID 145724743.
  35. Frend, W. H. C., The Rise of Christianity, Fortress Press, Philadelphia, 1984, p. 374, which in footnote 45 cites Eusebius, Historia Ecclesiastica VI.8.2
  36. "Words". Archives.nd.edu. Retrieved 2014-04-24.
  37. Moxnes, Halvor (2004). Putting Jesus in his place. Westminster John Knox Press. p. 85. ISBN 978-0-664-22310-6. Especially in De Monogamia it seems clear that Tertullian takes spado to mean a "virgin", but by using the word spado he employed a term that was in common use to refer to castrated men
  38. Accordingly, Tertullian's text, "ipso domino spadonibus aperiente regna caelorum ut et ipso spadone, quem spectans et apostolus, propterea et ipse castratus, continentiam mavult" (De monogamia, 3) has been translated as "seeing that the Lord Himself opens 'the kingdoms of the heavens' to 'eunuchs', as being Himself, withal, a virgin; to whom looking, the apostle also--himself too for this reason abstinent--gives the preference to continence" (Roberts-Donaldson translation).
  39. Rogers, Jack (14 April 2009). Jesus, the Bible, and Homosexuality, Revised and Expanded Edition: Explode the Myths, Heal the Church. Westminster John Knox Press. ISBN 9781611640502 – via Google Books.
  40. John C. Dwyer, Human Sexuality: A Christian View, Rowman & Littlefield, USA, 1987, p. 62
  41. David Jeffers, Understanding Evangelicals, Xulon Press, USA, 2006, p. 54
  42. Catechism of the Catholic Church, § 2357 and Criteria for the Discernment of Vocation for Persons with Homosexual Tendencies Archived February 25, 2008, at the Wayback Machine
  43. Jeanne H. Ballantine, Keith A. Roberts, Our Social World: Introduction to Sociology, 3rd Media Edition, SAGE, USA, 2011, p. 427
  44. Adrian Thatcher, The Oxford Handbook of Theology, Sexuality, and Gender, Oxford University Press, UK, 2015, p. 363
  45. Jeffrey S. Siker, Homosexuality and Religion: An Encyclopedia, Greenwood Publishing Group, USA, 2007, p. 112
  46. William Henard, Adam Greenway, Evangelicals Engaging Emergent, B&H Publishing Group, USA, 2009, p. 20
  47. Erwin Fahlbusch, Geoffrey William Bromiley, The Encyclopedia of Christianity, Volume 4, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, USA, 2005, p. 937
  48. "History of MCC – Metropolitan Community Churches". www.mccchurch.org. Retrieved 2018-07-16.
  49. "LGBT Identification, by Religious Affiliation". PRRI American Values Atlas 2019. Retrieved April 20, 2021.
  50. "Religious Composition by Self-Reported Sexual Identity". PEW Research Center. 2014. Retrieved April 20, 2021.
  51. "Religious Affiliation". PEW Research Center. 2013. Retrieved April 20, 2021.
  52. Mahaffy, Kimberly A. (1996). "Cognitive Dissonance and Its Resolution: A Study of Lesbian Christians". Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion. 35 (4): 392–402. doi:10.2307/1386414. JSTOR 1386414.
  53. Hogan, Steve and Lee Hudson (1998). Completely Queer: The Gay and Lesbian Encyclopedia,. pg. 478. New York, Henry Holt and Company. ISBN 0805036296.
  54. Keller, Rosemary Skinner; Ruether, Rosemary Radford; Cantlon, Marie (1 January 2006). Encyclopedia of Women and Religion in North America: Women and religion: methods of study and reflection. Indiana University Press. ISBN 9780253346865 – via Google Books.
  55. Toft, Alex (2014-08-15). "Re-imagining bisexuality and Christianity: The negotiation of Christianity in the lives of bisexual women and men" (PDF). Sexualities. 17 (5–6): 546–564. doi:10.1177/1363460714526128. ISSN 1363-4607. S2CID 144119995.
  56. "June 1972: The Ithaca Statement - BiMedia". 10 February 2012. Archived from the original on 15 October 2015.
  57. Donaldson, Stephen (1995). "The Bisexual Movement's Beginnings in the 70s: A Personal Retrospective". In Tucker, Naomi (ed.). Bisexual Politics: Theories, Queries, & Visions. New York: Harrington Park Press. pp. 31–45. ISBN 978-1-56023-869-0.
  58. Highleyman, Liz (2003-07-11). "PAST Out: What is the history of the bisexual movement?". LETTERS From CAMP Rehoboth. Vol. 13, no. 8. Archived from the original on 2008-05-31. Retrieved 2008-03-18.
  59. Martin, Robert (1972-08-02). "Quakers 'come out' at conference". The Advocate (91): 8.
  60. Campaign, Human Rights. "Stances of Faiths on LGBTQ Issues: Religious Society of Friends - Human Rights Campaign".
  61. Bogaert, Anthony F. (2004). "Asexuality: prevalence and associated factors in a national probability sample". Journal of Sex Research. 41 (3): 279–87. doi:10.1080/00224490409552235. PMID 15497056. S2CID 41057104.
  62. Melby, Todd (November 2005). "Asexuality gets more attention, but is it a sexual orientation?" (PDF). Contemporary Sexuality. 39 (11): 1, 4–5. ISSN 1094-5725. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2006-02-11. Retrieved 20 November 2011 – via American Association of Sexuality Educators, Counselors and Therapists.
  63. Marshall Cavendish, ed. (2010). "Asexuality". Sex and Society. Vol. 2. Marshall Cavendish. pp. 82–83. ISBN 978-0-7614-7906-2. Retrieved 27 July 2013.
  64. "Eight myths about religious life - VISION Vocation Network for Catholic Religious Life & Priesthood - English". Archived from the original on 2019-02-12. Retrieved 2013-10-25.
  65. Petriello, Lisa (December 15, 2020). "Why We Christians Should Accept Asexuals".
  66. What does the Bible say about asexuality?

General
  • Wilcox, Melissa M. (2003). Coming out in Christianity: religion, identity, and community. Indiana University Press. ISBN 978-0-253-21619-9.
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